Northeast China's Liaoning Province has published a collection of nearly 1,000 photographs taken by a Japanese spy with the family name of Shimasaki before the Japanese invasion of China in 1931.

The photographs are the convincing material evidence that suggests that Japan's intrusion into China was a long-planned and premeditated conspiracy, according to Prof. Wu Bing'an, a noted Chines folk culture scholar.

Prof Wu said here today that his long and meticulous study proves that the pictures were shot in the eight years from 1924 to1932 by the Japanese spy posing as a news photographer.

The photos were divided into the categories of Chinese towns, villages, common people, and folk customs, and many of them are photos about Chinese ports, railway stations, transportation facilities, central squares, commercial centers, and major mines and factories.

The spy also photographed several cities of strategic importance such as Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, the three component parts of Wuhan city at the middle reaches of the Yangtzefrom a variety of angles and distances.

The transportation and commercial shots were of great value to Japanese military officers then for judging economic conditions.

"The photo book, which can serve as a textbook, will be instructive not only to the young people, but also to the elderly who lived through that miserable time," said Wu.